Each weapon needs a specialty component that is like the shield punch/ shield leech. ...

and....

We need components that 'counter' these specialty ones in the appropriate defensive lines, Ideally a counter to shield punch would be: "Anti-matter' field slick" this augment will <either> negate the effects of shield punch or double the value of your shields if no shield punch is used. Requires 2 anti matter.

This ties into the ai USING such items and giving particular AI the 'flavor' and disposition to always build with it would be a nice touch.

Looks good to me. makes them harder to kill with a single ship but still vulnerable to a dedicated attack. The AI should assign them a priority in its attack logic, they also should cost more to build so once destroyed they cannot be replaced in one sigle turn. A progressive cost pegged to the current age would be nice.

On the diplomacy side, the changes you made may still be slightly overpowered. I planted the embassy on a class 26 bread basket planet and surrounded it by consulates and the missionary improvement. Population is now at 56. After researching up to the diplomatic district I now have a status of "dreamy" with everyone except the Romulans and Borg who are "captivated". I even have a great status with the minor races I am at war with.

Playing klingons at gifted on an immense map with abundant everything and Conquest only victory conditions. I am second to the Borg who are across the galaxy and I was surrounded by the Ferengi, Federation, Romulans and Tholians so I had a chance to survive. I now have 109 planets and getting ready to take on the Breen who helped me carve up the Ferengi With everyone just loving me it has given me a chance to build up significantly both my military and industrial base. Now comes the time to start conquering the other races. All minors in my area have been conquered as well as the Ferengi.

As an aside, the precursor defended anomalies are too strong on an abundant map I believe, getting several 25% boost to all production with 100 + planets is significant as well as the 2000 credits that come with it. It would be nice to have a setting just for them so the normal ones can be abundant but the precursor artifacts are rare. The AI also seems to ignore them which gives me a large advantage.

Looks good to me. makes them harder to kill with a single ship but still vulnerable to a dedicated attack. The AI should assign them a priority in its attack logic, they also should cost more to build so once destroyed they cannot be replaced in one sigle turn. A progressive cost pegged to the current age would be nice.

I did increase cost, doubled it. I can see if there is a away to make the cost progressive. (I know I can tie it into tech but that is a clunky way of doing it)

On the diplomacy side, the changes you made may still be slightly overpowered. I planted the embassy on a class 26 bread basket planet and surrounded it by consulates and the missionary improvement. Population is now at 56. After researching up to the diplomatic district I now have a status of "dreamy" with everyone except the Romulans and Borg who are "captivated". I even have a great status with the minor races I am at war with.

Yeah I seen this too, hense the nerf I introduced to ID:- 3, 5, 7 and 0.2, 0.4, 0.6. It is 2, 5, 8 and 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 in current build. What level did you manage to get the Embassy upto? 12? Did you build Culture bases? And how many? I might nerf it a tad more:- 2, 4, 6 and 0.2, 0.3, 0.4. Still toying with it.

As an aside, the precursor defended anomalies are too strong on an abundant map I believe, getting several 25% boost to all production with 100 + planets is significant as well as the 2000 credits that come with it. It would be nice to have a setting just for them so the normal ones can be abundant but the precursor artifacts are rare. The AI also seems to ignore them which gives me a large advantage.

Also toying with removing the encounters from Anomalies purely because the AI ignores them, even when they have fleets capable of taking them with no losses. No idea why SD is making the AI ignore pirates its absurd.

"What level did you manage to get the Embassy up to? 12? Did you build Culture bases? And how many?"

Embassy is at level 12, and I have 4 fully upgraded culture starbases. I also picked diplomacy boosting choices during colonization events and anomaly results.

"Also toying with removing the encounters from Anomalies purely because the AI ignores them, even when they have fleets capable of taking them with no losses. No idea why SD is making the AI ignore pirates its absurd."

It kind of defeats the purpose of having them in the first place and makes them incredibly overpowered if the AI does not pick any of them up. Some of them have really big bonuses so if the AI never takes them that is definitely a game breaker.

It kind of defeats the purpose of having them in the first place and makes them incredibly overpowered if the AI does not pick any of them up. Some of them have really big bonuses so if the AI never takes them that is definitely a game breaker.

They do not take them atm. Removing the Encounter, they would treat them as any other non defended anomaly, basicly gobble them up right quick.

The precoursor relics are fine as they are. However what needs to be done is for the ai to make the effort to grab them. If they did that then we all would be on equal footing.

I have petitioned for an entire 'Pirates' DLC which creates Pirates as a mobile interactive Minor with sub factions (Horemvores raiders, lars buccaneers..ect). I also have asked for diplomo options as the possibilities are endless (pay for raids on rival shipping lanes, attack other ships or starbases, interdiction of economic resources)..all woiuld be added to our growing diplomacy options. ...

Now precourer relic power is fine. You should have seen them BEFORE Stardock nerfed them! Horemvores solution was to make them VERY hard to get for a while and to delay the player a bit...this is so so in my opinion. In all cases unless the ai gets the perk as well, it will allow the player to steam roll eventually. If you remove the guards then they will be non existent to the player I can tell you that...

Since getting to the route cause of the AI's issue with avoiding Pirates like the plague is beyond my reach atm (Hopefully there will be more modding support with the workshop support dlc if it is still on the cards). I think removing the encounter is the best of a bad bunch. AI and Humans will at least be on equal footing, it will just mean the player HAS to grab the precursor anomalies asap. It is either that or remove them from the equation.

Quoting Horemvore: "Did you have Ripe for Conquest active? Or had you nullified it buy having enough ships?"

Ripe for Conquest was an issue at first but yes I did do a massive buildup to nullify it. Used the malevolent ideology choices to get me to 100% military production on my home world as fast as possible and then just cranked out the ships. The anomalies and trade with minors kept me afloat economically until i was able to get good cash from my dedicated economic planets.

Some points from turn 250 playing the Klingons on gifted with immense map and all abundant.

1. As I said above the new diplomacy model is still a bit overpowered however by this time some of the opponents, Tholians and Dominion have started to turn against me due to my Pragmatic turn in ideology. Now distraught and resentful due to the -14 modifier in ideology choice. Maybe strengthening that would help? make the Malevolent races really hate anyone else?

2. The Klingon attribute that gives them research for every relic is over powered on an abundant map. I now get +180% for Culture relics, +210% for Approval, +120% for research, +90% for manufacturing and +60% for economic relics. That really adds up quick.

3. With the new terraforming I can get really big planets but the clicking is out of control, would be nice to click one setting that states soil engineer or terraform to maximum allowed (once researched of course) and all allowed terrain is automatically terraformed after the required turns, otherwise on some planets i have to double click 20 times to fully terraform the planet after manufacturing one or two work camps.

1. As I said above the new diplomacy model is still a bit overpowered however by this time some of the opponents, Tholians and Dominion have started to turn against me due to my Pragmatic turn in ideology. Now distraught and resentful due to the -14 modifier in ideology choice. Maybe strengthening that would help? make the Malevolent races really hate anyone else?

Already on it, this is what I have changed so far, after a few test games:

Increased OpposingCulture Modifier for Benevolent by 15% and Malevolent by 25%.

Increased TradeWithOpposingCulture to -2 base.

Increased RefusedTechDemand to -2.

Added modifier to ConquestVictoryGoal for Cruel 15% and Expansionist 25%.

Increased Warmonger penalty to -6 base.

Added modifier to YouAreWarMonger for Expansionist,Trader and Spiritual 25%.

2. The Klingon attribute that gives them research for every relic is over powered on an abundant map. I now get +180% for Culture relics, +210% for Approval, +120% for research, +90% for manufacturing and +60% for economic relics. That really adds up quick.

I have not changed much in the Klingon tree yet, its still the Drengin tree with the weapons changes. i will get to it at some point. The Tech trees for the factions is why I am keeping the mod in Alpha, once I have them all done will up it to beta. I keep getting side tracked on other aspects though, like the diplomacy

3. With the new terraforming I can get really big planets but the clicking is out of control, would be nice to click one setting that states soil engineer or terraform to maximum allowed (once researched of course) and all allowed terrain is automatically terraformed after the required turns, otherwise on some planets i have to double click 20 times to fully terraform the planet after manufacturing one or two work camps.

Yep I find it a real pain in the butt too but its out of my hands and in SD's

2. The Klingon attribute that gives them research for every relic is over powered on an abundant map. I now get +180% for Culture relics, +210% for Approval, +120% for research, +90% for manufacturing and +60% for economic relics. That really adds up quick.

^^ This is the 'Ancient' trait and yes on abundant and a player who knows how to 'exploit' it will become OP. I have it and I love it. It gives you 10% research (cumulative) per relic mined. I would suggest going into our settings and putting relics on rare or modding the ini before you go out and nerf a trait that is rather fun to play with. I play with it for that reason so I can keep a tech edge on Ai who get rather high bonuses. Lastly, do not forget that one of the X's in a 4x game is the word Xploit!!!

^^ This is the 'Ancient' trait and yes on abundant and a player who knows how to 'exploit' it will become OP. I have it and I love it. It gives you 10% research (cumulative) per relic mined. I would suggest going into our settings and putting relics on rare or modding the ini before you go out and nerf a trait that is rather fun to play with. I play with it for that reason so I can keep a tech edge on Ai who get rather high bonuses. Lastly, do not forget that one of the X's in a 4x game is the word Xploit!!!

Well, I do not think the Klingons are "Ancient". So they are losing it, but, The Dominion are Ancient so they get it instead

Quoting Horemvore "Well, I do not think the Klingons are "Ancient". So they are losing it, but, The Dominion are Ancient so they get it instead "

Might be an idea to compensate a bit on the Klingon tech tree then since the -15% research attribute will leave them far behind otherwise at higher difficulty levels.

On another note, I noticed that the Klingons cannot use Antimatter for anything, they have no access to weapons that use it and the antimatter reactor improvement is not available. Right now all I can do with it is trade it. Was that done on purpose?

Speaking of resources, having the mining improvement available for all types of starbases except the economic variant is fun but leads to very large caches, something the AI does not seem able to exploit. I have 740 thulium and 508 antimatter for example while the Tholians are negative in both. If keeping this ability is in the cards then you may want to consider improving the AI's ability to exploit it and increase the number of improvements and weapons that need the resource. Other mods that do the same did it because all their weapons required them as a means of balance. It kind of defeats the purpose of the Elerium defence shield being a special improvement for those really important strategic assets when you have 550 Eleriums available and can build it on every planet. All my planets, 109 of them, are pretty much impenetrable by now with some, my class 55 precursor elevator world for example at over 200 points in defence and resistance.

The game is very stable by the way, so far after 259 turns there have been no CTD or any other issues aside from the stuttering that SD does not seem able to fix on very large maps.

On another note, I noticed that the Klingons cannot use Antimatter for anything, they have no access to weapons that use it and the antimatter reactor improvement is not available. Right now all I can do with it is trade it. Was that done on purpose?

Speaking of resources, having the mining improvement available for all types of starbases except the economic variant is fun but leads to very large caches, something the AI does not seem able to exploit.

I am addressing that as we speak! (Adjusting the Starbase Governors for the AI)

If keeping this ability is in the cards then you may want to consider improving the AI's ability to exploit it and increase the number of improvements and weapons that need the resource. Other mods that do the same did it because all their weapons required them as a means of balance. It kind of defeats the purpose of the Elerium defence shield being a special improvement for those really important strategic assets when you have 550 Eleriums available and can build it on every planet.

I am planning on redoing the resource specific components, but for now I suggest a uncommon or rare setting for resources. Even on uncommon I usually end up with 100+ of each though. This is why I terminated my last test game, 5 of the 8 AI were all -20 or more in resources. After using the FoW cheat to see what was up, I saw the AI was not mining most of their resources due to Eco starbases taking up the space. So I am addressing this as we speak!

Once I have the Diplo and AI where I am happy with it, I shall be going back to finishing the components & improvements.

AI Tweaks.Adjusted the new Military Module's stats.Added Attack and Defense to Military Ring module.Minor Races have been Boosted.Fixed Random CTD.Fixed -50% Maintenace for Stationed Ships. I really have this time!Diplomacy Tweaks:-

Increased OpposingCulture Modifier for Benevolent by 15% and Malevolent by 25%.

Increased TradeWithOpposingCulture to -2 base.

Increased RefusedTechDemand to -2.

Added modifier to ConquestVictoryGoal for Cruel 15% and Expansionist 25%.

Increased Warmonger penalty to -6 base.

Added modifier to YouAreWarMonger for Expansionist,Trader and Spiritual 25%.

I have pushed this update out with only 1 and a bit Test games. I will apologize now if it turns out to be a bit unbalanced. I am pressed for time in RL due to work for the next 4-6 weeks so my modding time is going to be limited to hotfixes only most likely.

Turn 55 of new game with 0.3e, plays well, diplomacy changes have an impact. Tholians and Breen have DOW me already since I concentrated on benevolent traits. On 0.3d I never got a DOW even after 250 turns. Should be an interesting game, playing the Federation on immense with common everything except resources on uncommon and precursor artifacts on rare to lower the human player advantages in resource exploitation somewhat.

Yeah I got caught out somewhat in my current game. Started quite isolated on a Hugantic Map did not meet anyone for 106 turns, met the Tholians then and they DoW'd me 2 turns later due to RFC, although the -7 from opposing Ideology probably doesn't help. I had not built much military due to been isolated bah 3 minors. Fighting now to keep my boarder worlds from falling to them!

Should be an interesting game, playing the Federation on immense with common everything except resources on uncommon and precursor artifacts on rare to lower the human player advantages in resource exploitation somewhat.

I am going to address this, it is next on my hit list. Will just take longer than I had planed due to time shortage.

I was able to buy peace with the Tholians but now the Borg, who are too far anyway, have DOW as well as the Klingons. Keeping my own against the Klingons. BTW the Klingons are coming after me with pure missile ships, if cannons are their good weapons it may be useful to give the AI a priority to build those instead.

The Borg on the other hand are using balanced ships with massive defenses in the order of 120 to 150 on shield, point and armor defense, they are tough as hell and a real threat. Good thing I have some time to prepare.

Concentrating on phasers for the federation hoping that will help. Seem to be good against the Klingons.

Borg are tough as they should be, hardest of the faction if they have managed to build up. They normally Starbase hop to get to ppl they DoW, so you may not have the time you think, keep an eye out. I have noticed this about the Klingons too, not sure why they are doing that atm. The Feds are fairly well balanced weapon wise(I play them the most).

I had too use my stored up 50 turn immune to war. Met the Klingons, Breen and Dominion one after the other and they were all On The Warpath as soon as I met them, was not taking the chance while fighting back the Tholians and to top it off got the Dreadlords mega event and they spawned right on my Boarder with the Breen and are been a pain in the butt too my scouts & freighters

Just hit Tier 2 with Diplomacy, had very little effect on the mentioned factions. Just met the Cardassians and they seem to be Pacified enough via Diplo(+12) for me not to worry about them going to war. Got 31 turns left on my DoW Immunity, 25 Culture Starbases also had little impact on Diplo, only Tier one with them though. All other factions are +3 to +5 Diplo. So far so good, will see tomorrow how the last tier in Diplo improvements and tier 2 Starbases effect things.

I'm still having problems getting this mod to run. I've tried to run the mod on two PC's, both of which are Windows 7 64 bit rigs with 16 gig of ram. One has an AMD R9 390x and an i7 4790 CPU, the other a 290 and an i5-3570. The 390x will not run the mod at all, although if I turn mods off it runs fine. The 290 will not run the mod 3 times out of 4, but it did run a tiny game with the Borg. Federation and Klingons. You've done a great job with the mod and when it actually loads it has had no problems through 100+ turns.

Are you all using Nvidia cards or is anyone else running R9 200/300 systems? If you're running AMD cards, what version Catalyst are you using?